Inuit reject being labelled Aboriginals

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Canada's Inuit do not want to labelled Aboriginal.

"I have a very clear mandate from the Inuit leadership to inform you of our discomfort with the label 'Aboriginal people'," said Inuit Tapirisat of Canada President Rosemarie Kuptana during her opening remarks before the final round of hearings by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

"Being labelled as Aboriginal too often means that Inuit concerns are lost in the shuffle of most governments and most Aboriginal policy forums. In many ways, the label Aboriginal is more of a hindrance than a help. It downplays our distinctiveness as a people and is too often used to rationalize the limitation or denial of our fundamental human right to determine our own future," said Kuptana.

The relationship between the Inuit and Canada has been different than that of other Aboriginal peoples. There are no treaties between the Inuit and the Crown. The Inuit also form a majority in most of their traditional lands and have only been heavily influenced by European ways since the end of the Second World War.

They have also been fairly pragmatic in adoption of non-Inuit ways of doing things. The best example is that the legislative process for the new territory of Nunavut will be closely modelled on the British Parliamentary one.

Kuptana fears that by being labeled Aboriginal, the focus will be on "preconceptions of how we lived and thought before Europeans arrived." She would prefer to see the focus on fundamental human rights and an acceptance of non-ethnic processes.

The rejection of the label Aboriginal does not mean the Inuit do not feel for the situation of other Aboriginal peoples, added Kuptana.